Revenge of the Lich
by MindlessAbnormity
Summary: (Another branch-off thing from my 'Tending the Dead' story.) The Scourge of Humanity finally makes a valiant return back to his undead kingdom after managing to climb his way out from the Domain of the Lost. Unfortunately, things around the Bone Palace haven't been too peachy since his sudden and unannounced absence.


**I don't own anything except for my OC.**

**Author's Note:** HI AGAIN. I wanted to write about the events occurring right around the time when Joko inevitably, somehow got himself out from the Domain of the Lost. No spoilers from the main story, just another fast forward time skip thing from when _Tending the Dead _takes place.

Needless to say, The Bone Palace hasn't been doing too well in the grumpy bag of bone's absence.

xxx

"Did you hear? King Joko has finally returned?" an Awakened solider whispered to his undead cohort sitting next to him. The two cadaver-like walls of muscle were sitting up against one of the Bone Palaceʼs outer walls, the harsh sun high in the sky as the pair had sought out some sparse amount of shade that they were fortunately given from the near inhospitable environment.

The Bone Palace itself was a structure of macabre architecture, as it entirely lived up to its name. Bones of varying size held the towering walls up as they constructed an almost impenetrable fortress right within the heart of The Desolation. The location was quite obviously strategic, given that most of its sides were surrounded by imposing mountainsides or instead deathly sulfuric rivers.

"Really? I heard rumors that there are impostors of him running around", the second Awakened soldier spoke, his gravely voice only slighter higher in pitch than his partner. "Can you imagine? Daring to even take our wonderful and magnificent rulerʼs persona?"

"I wonder when he will make his glorious return back to the Bone Palace", the first of the two said again, excitedly shifting himself to sit more forward from his seated position. The ground around them was predictably also littered with bones and fragmented shards, and the sudden movement caused a choir of noise from the snapping pieces.

"Could you _please_ stop moving around so much?" Julianna Fyre suddenly interrupted the conversation with obvious frustration in her tone. She was kneeling in front of the two, the entire length of both her forearms were coated in tar and sinew as she was trying to heal a near amputated torso. And matters were not made any easier when her patient was shifting around and causing her to almost disrupt her healing spell.

"What? Oh... right", the undead patient said as he moved back again and watched his doctor work. "Sorry about that doc. I almost forgot you were even there."

Said doctor stuck her tongue out at the comment and ignored it, continuing to try and mend the torn rotting flesh back together. Her palms were alight with a light blue glow of healing magic while she hovered her fingers atop the Awakened soldierʼs pectoral muscle. In some nearly forgotten and earlier part of her life, she had been a simple medic working in a less-than known clinic back in Lionʼs Arch. She had gone from tending infected Skale bite wounds and rowdy detained pirates, to now healing what she once would have thought entirely impossible. In the months to follow from her unwilling job occupation change, she had quickly come to learn just about any kind of injury was possible when dealing with the walking abominations of the Awakened army.

"Are you excited about his return as well?" the second of the two asked with sudden vigor, motioning his armored head towards the woman. It was no secret to anyone that the armyʼs wayward healer had something to that of a bizarre closeness to the their ruling lich. Though many found themselves questioning why and how exactly that worked.

"Iʼll be relieved when there is finally a break from all this never ending work...", she muttered, wiping her other hand across her forehead and accidentally creating a dark streak of tar across it. Truth be told, she had hardly even been thinking about the astray ruler because she had been so occupied her with her own job.

Since Palawa Jokoʼs sudden departure, his kingdom had been thrown into a downward spiral of chaos and uncertainty. But in such an unplanned event like this, careful precautions had already made to help ensure there was some sense of stability within the rulerʼs random absence. Grand Vizier Utumishi, the dutiful head of the civil governance, had been made temporarily in charge for the meantime. A large handful of Jokoʼs dutiful responsibilities were bestowed upon the adviser, and the balding kiss-up of a man had been more than grateful to take up the boastful opportunity.

While matters around the kingdom were in a temporary standstill, it still came with a number of growing problems. Unfortunately for the healer, it meant that the Awakened troops were less structured than before, and there were more accidental injuries that needed to be tended to. The soldiers worked poorly, as they were distracted by the constant reminder that their leader had disappeared without warning and they had no foreseeable future ahead of them. The undead fretted about constantly, talking to each other about the foreseeable future and what it meant for their shambling own selves. The last that anyone would have wanted, was to be tossed aside into the Bonestrand like many of their previous Awakened cohorts.

Or even worse, completely shamed by their magnificent monarch.

"Well, you didn't hear it from me", the first undead continued as he jabbed a clawed thumb towards himself with pride. "But I think heʼll probably be excited to see you doc."

"You make it sound like he was gone for a great number of years...", she replied with a humorless tone, relinquishing the magic in her hands as she examined her work. At best, Joko had been gone for a little over a few weeks. She then smiled widely, clapping her filthy hands excitedly as she saw the leathery skin looked almost as good as new again. Her bleeding heart sang for the quality of work she had completed, even if it was done on a decaying, walking corpse of a body.

She turned to the second of the two, dark colored eyes already scouring for the next injury. "Alright, thatʼs one down, and another to go. Youʼre next."

The second undead complied and turned his torso around, which was displaying a large gaping hole in the back.

Julianna grimaced with a click of her tongue, scooting forward as she observed the wound. Her hands gently prodded around the outside area of the flayed and hardened skin, before they moved more inward to feel around the torn muscle.

"Skale toes... at least it didn't permeate both sides, though the hole is still pretty deep", she muttered, relinquishing back her digits once more as she finished her medical diagnosis. "I imagine this is going to take a good bit of time to fix back to... a semi-normal looking stage again."

The patient merely shrugged, looking back to his cohort as they wordlessly decided they would much rather be spending the time conversing with each other rather than acquiring any more dire wounds.

xxx

Word spread fast of Palawa Jokoʼs unannounced return from the ghostly province of the Land of the Lost, as the lich currently had an immense crowd surrounding him within the throne room of his Bone Palace. The egomaniacal leader was all too eager to spread the fabricated lies that spoke of the supposed reason for his unpredictable departure into the Underworld. And of course to no oneʼs surprise, the audience greedily ate up the lies with little to no judgement about whether or not they were even remotely true.

The sun was now sitting low in the sky, and the undead king had long since already ended his unnecessarily long and strewn out monologues. Matters had now moved onto the the dull task of awaiting his most high-ranking Awakened to come forward to him so they could dispel all that had happened within their area of positioned expertise while he was gone.

Joko turned to where Grand Vizier Utumishi was dutifully standing next to his right side when a moment of pause from the busyness had finally been able to present itself. He leaned down considerably to whisper into the much shorter manʼs ear as the undead ruler was nearly twice his adviser's height.

"Weʼre missing a few rather... infamous guests, what of their whereabouts?" he asked, the jewelry on his headdress clattering loudly from having to moved down so extensively. He had already seen most of who he wanted to be bothered by already, which had included his Marshals and Archons. It was now mostly the nobodies finding the time to come whine to him about some matter he was no longer in any control of since it was already tar under the bridge at this point in time.

"You must mean the lout?" Utumishi replied back all too quickly, his tone sounding incredibly stoic with a lace of annoyance as he had been referring to the healer. He kept his gaze trained straight ahead as he watched another lower ranked Archon approach. "I imagine actually being useful for once. Sheʼs definitely had her work cut out for her since your sudden departure from our world."

Joko fully stood back up with a stoic expression, nodding in affirmation of the current whereabouts of the stubborn little healer. He figured she would eventually come crawling out from whatever hole she was hiding within, as she usually always did.

Otherwise heʼd be sure to rightly fix that real quick.

xxx

Julianna had quickly heard the news as about Palawa Joko's sudden return all too soon, as talk traveled like wildfire around the confines of the bone laden fortress. But even if she had wanted to go make an appearance in front of the lich that she had grown a curious and otherworldly fondness towards, she was still tasked with her seemingly never ending work. And dire wounds couldn't be put on pause until they were properly healed up.

She figured if the immortal ruler had been around for as long as he often boasted about, then he could wait just a bit longer.

But naturally as she had come to learn time and time again, nothing ever went well for her for very long.

xxx

Sometime later after a majority of the crowd had finally dispersed from the throne room, Joko felt as though he could finally get a break from all the constant conversation. An annoyed growl reverberated from deep within his chest as he impatiently shifted from one clawed foot to the next. He yearned to be done with all this formality business so he could get back to planning more pressing matters upon a certain Pact Commanderʼs life. And ensuring it was done in the most painful and drawn out process as both physically and mentally possible.

"I believe that is just about everyone then", Utumishi said with finality, speaking up again as he adjusted his high collar. He too was relieved to see that the work was finally dwindling down and the balding middle aged man let out an equally annoyed sounding sigh. "King Joko, if I may... My heavy condolences again to the loss of Archon Iberu. And... some of your army."

"Ugh, speak of that anymore tonight and Iʼll ensure you will no longer have a tongue to speak with Utumishi. You know, I hear itʼs quite the treat for a hungry Sand Eel", the lich snapped right back, his patience having completely dwindled after randomly hearing the terrible news from a loud mouthed low ranked soldier about what had truly transpired during his absence. It had seemed some rather important details had been left out when had been speaking to his higher-ranking soldiers. Not only that, but he had been incredibly displeased to have learnt that a large part of his army had practically been stolen, and Archon Iberu had been killed and used to become a living disguise as his identify had been taken by some frilly Mesmer spell.

Palawa Joko, unbeknownst to any yet, did have the unfortunate incident of actually meeting the ghostly visage of the famous hero responsible for those atrocious acts whilst he was still imprisoned within the Domain of the Lost. The boastful fool of a Pact Commander had made a mockery of him after they had gained their name back from some mischievous spirit running a muck. But instead of being a supposed hero like Joko had suspected, he was angered to find out that they decided to leave his greatness behind while he remained trapped in the inescapable chains given to him by the backstabbing, fallen-God Balthazar. The vengeful lich had begun setting the gears of revenge in motion the near second the Commander carelessly turned their back on him.

Bad times were coming to Elona in the very new future, as Joko had been heavily invested into looking into a very interesting piece of history that had caused a generation to nearly be wiped from the books.

The tall lichʼs brooding thoughts were momentarily broken when he caught side of an out-of-place, familiar blonde head of hair above the crowd of many armored Awakened oneʼs. His head turned to the side curiously when he saw that said head of hair was only visible because someone was currently carrying its owner through the large standing group of fiendish-looking cadavers. Otherwise he knew said person wouldn't been able to have been visible given her shorter height among the sea of taller undead figures.

"Crabby, I swear by the deepest, most sulfur-ridden pits of the Desolation itself, I will-" the flustered woman could be heard saying as they approached. She was trying desperately to wriggle out his grip but he kept her tightly pinned against the top of his shoulder as he continued hauling her forward.

She continued with her angry rambling. "But I still have patients to treat!" she nearly yelled, still stubbornly trying uselessly to beat her closed fists against the wall of muscleʼs back. "Did you even see the Awakened mummy I was working on before you rudely interrupted and grabbed me? He was missing his complete lower jaw and I was in the middle of reattaching of important ligaments before-"

Julianna couldn't get another angry word out before she was unceremoniously dumped onto the bone ridden ground as her captor had come to stand just before the appointed throne.

"Doylak spit, I swear Crabby... you know Iʼm a grown adult woman right? I donʼt need to be carried around...", she muttered lowly as she moved herself to stand back up and dusted off the lingering fragments of dust from her baggy-looking pants.

"Your responses are usually anything but mature...", Crabby mumbled back just under his breath with a roll of his beady yellow eyes.

The irritated woman was completely unaware of her current location and who she had just been deposited right in front of. Her lack of awareness to surroundings was often a repeating setback within her personality.

"King Joko, I brought the healer to you because I assumed she was the last person you needed to hear from tonight", Crabby remarked as he bowed towards his leader who was now standing just a few feet away. "Sheʼs been hiding herself away and working."

The disheveled looking doctor nearly whipped around and shot a glare towards the familiar soldier. "I would have shown up to come make an appearance eventually! After I finished healing my patients."

"Why wasn't the work finished by this time?" Utumishi suddenly intervened, feeling the need to get his word in and in return, make the womanʼs life even more of a living hell. He looked up to see the star ridden sky above. "Youʼre normally done with your duties long before the sun has completely set. Have you just been slacking off? Again?"

Julianna had just as quickly whipped back around to face her number one most detested enemy. Her dark eyes were nearly burning with rage as she turned back to shoot a threateningly hateful look towards the man she had come to greatly dislike. Since day one, she hadn't gotten along with Utumishi, and their rivalry had only continually grown exponentially since then.

Once again her mouth was proven to get her into trouble as she spoke before thinking things fully through. "Maybe if you had done a better job at managing things then I wouldn't have so many patients to treat..."

"Lecherous cur, I would love the opportunity to ensure your certain demise-" the adviser tried but was quickly interrupted by the lich right next to him.

"Enough of this childish squabbling", Joko nearly yelled with an intimidating tone, setting the room in almost complete silence. He looked up to address the rest of his Awakened still uselessly milling about the inner throne room area. "The rest of you, be off now. Iʼm certain there are far more productive things you could be spending your time with right now."

The threat had been received loud and clearly as no one wanted to disagree with their obviously peeved and terrifyingly unpredictable king.

Joko brought a hand to his brow, massaging the upper bridge of his would-be nose as he could feel a headache begin to come on. This hadn't been what he was wanting to deal with upon a glorious arrival back his kingdom. He looked back down to see the still-angry looking woman had her arms crossed across her chest and was predictably making ugly faces at him while also sticking her tongue out.

He let out a breath of hot air through his nose, trying to expedite the sour mood as he moved onto other problems.

"So, it sounds like you have just been incredibly occupied with your work after all this time then. How wonderfully gratifying to hear..." he asked with a sarcastic tone, motioning with a clawed hand towards the petite woman as it snapped her out of the stalemate she had been in the midst of.

He continued speaking after unabashedly looking the woman up and down as he could see she was quite filthy looking. "Iʼd be so bold as to say this new... look is quite unbecoming of you. Is this how my healer chooses to look when they come to greet my immeasurable greatness again?"

Julianna could feel a wave of heat flush her freckled face as she looked down to see the state of her appearance herself. She figured her appearance of tar and blood stained arms had already been ghastly looking enough, but the trip over here from Crabby certainly hadn't helped in the matters either as her curly hair was now sticking up in odd places even more so than before.

"Very funny...", she shot back, eyes narrowing up towards the lich. Of all the times he had chosen to comment on her appearance, it was when she was left with little-to-no choice about her current state.

Joko had moved forward with his hands behind his back to stand just before one of his favorite sources of entertainment as he watched her form immediately seize up. He moved his arm back forward as a single digit finger to tap against her tar streaked forward. "You look as though you've been wrestling with a tar elemental."

She was about to say something about her predicament, but she was caught off guard when the undead ruler moved that same finger down south a bit so he could flick the end of her freckled nose as per his usual charade with her.

"Well, I have been busy like you said...", she muttered, shooing his pestering hand away as she tried to hide her reddening face. "I havenʼt even had the time to properly bathe. Iʼve quite literally been drowning in endless work."

"So it would appear...", Joko answered simply, as he turned to face his adviser once more, momentarily forgetting the man was even still standing there. "Well then, it seems the tart was the last person I needed to speak to about the matters during my absence, yes?"

"I believe so my eminence, Utumishi grumbled, rolling his eyes after he had witnessed the interaction between his eminence and the healer. The short snarky man had seen little value in what the random woman had to offer, even if her skills had proven to have been somewhat helpful to the undead rulerʼs cause. Unfortunately, tar-stained rags and death magic were only able to achieve so much when it came to long-term longevity of a walking corpse.

"Well then", Joko said with a more deceivingly happy tone as he was more than pleased to have been done with all of this political formality business. He clapped his hands together once before they moved out to grab the healerʼs shoulders. He spun the woman around before she had a chance for any rebuttal and pushed on the low of her back as he indicated for her to start walking forward and towards the exit of the room.

Julianna had stubbornly tried holding her ground but she immediately ceased when she could feel his pointed digits dig into her skin as a clear indication of a warning.

Joko waved a tar stained arm as he walked. "Iʼll be retiring then for the night Utumishi. There are a great, many things to plan for the upcoming future and a few other things to do in the meanwhile."

The fluffy haired person in front of him had immediately cracked back around like a whip of lightning upon hearing the last part of his comment, as she was fully aware of the suggestive tone behind it. Her freckled face burned even brighter than before, and her mouth open and closed like a fish out of water as she struggled to say anything back that was as equally snarky. She was left with nothing in her arsenal but to shoot an annoyed-looking glare back at him as she stuck her tongue out instead. But her tongue had retreated just as quickly when the lich mirrored her own face though.

The head of civil governance remained standing just in front of the appointed chairs, an incredibly disgusted-looking grimace on his face as he watched the two leave. He shuddered involuntarily, trying to rid his brain of the images they had begun to conjure as he considered the duoʼs bizarre relationship with one another.


End file.
